ALAN STUBBS, the Hibernian manager, has defiantly rebuffed the suggestion that his team’s third-place Championship finish may be viewed as a failure, and insists that he should not be judged until their Premiership fate has been decided.
The Easter Road club completed their regulation season yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Queen of the South, a result that sees them tied on 70 points with Falkirk, but with a goal difference of 25 compared to 27 of their rivals.
It means the team that had aspirations during the first half of the campaign of beating Rangers to first place now has to settle with third. They now have potentially seven games in 21 days coming up, starting with a play-off quarter-final at Stark’s Park against Raith Rovers on Wednesday.
However, given that during that run in Stubbs’ team will also play in the William Hill Scottish Cup final – their second final this year – the Hibs manager believes now is not the time for verdicts to be delivered on their campaign. Instead, Stubbs believes he should be judged on the 'big picture'.
“How is being in the playoffs failure whether you are second, third or fourth?” said Stubbs. “You still get the chance of one prize.
“And we only missed out on second by two goals. Falkirk have done fantastic this season
“We’re in the playoffs and two cup finals so I think that’s not bad, eh? So if you want to judge me then judge me on the big picture.
“And I think we have done ok to get two cup finals, that would be fair to say.”
Meanwhile, Stubbs refused to be drawn into the row over the play-off fixture schedule after it was revealed over the weekend that BT Sport have moved next week’s play-off semi-final round between Falkirk and Raith Rovers/Hibs forward.
It means the winner of this week’s quarter-final, first leg on Wednesday and second on Saturday, will then meet Peter Houston’s side just three days’ later.
“It’s not ideal, but it is what it is. It’s not going to change,” said Stubbs.
“TV do have a huge part to play in everything now. It is heavily favoured for the Premiership team but everybody signed up to it.
“You can’t go complaining about it now. We just have to get on with it.
“It’s a day less, but if you win it’s a day more to recover.”
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